Championships - 1999
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Lorena Ochoa won the 2007 Ricoh Women's British Open at St Andrews
29.07.2009
Ochoa back on track
Lorena Ochoa believes her game is back on track in time for the start of the Ricoh Women’s British Open which starts at Royal Lytham & St Annes on Thursday.The World’s No. 1 has not won since early season victories at the Honda LPGA Thailand and the Corona Championship in her homeland of Mexico but she is confident she has put her swing problems behind her and expects to mount a strong challenge for a title she won in emotional circumstances at the Old Course, St Andrews, in 2007.
“I’m feeling okay,” Ochoa said after playing the pre-Championship Pro-Am in intermittent rain. “I haven’t had great results in the last few tournaments but that was down to one bad round rather than bad golf.
“I’m hitting my driver better and I think that will be important for this week. The course is softer than it was when we played here in 2006. Then, your could land the ball ten, 15 yards short of the green and bounce it up there. Not today. The grass is very green. The ground is not very hard but the rough is longer than before.”
Ochoa has warm memories of a Lytham course where she finished tied fourth behind America’s Sherri Steinhauer the last time the Ricoh Women’s British Open was held at Lytham three year ago and the Mexican has no qualms about acclimatising herself to the vagaries of links golf.
“It’s the same for all the players,” she said with her customary smile. “I think we all know what we are getting. We have an idea (what it’s like) because we’ve played here before. I think all you need to do is to prepare yourself mentally for bad conditions.
“I don’t have a problem because I like the wind.”
Ochoa will start as one of the favourites despite an uncharacteristic run of six starts without a victory but she could well face a strong challenge from her great friend and rival, Ai Miyazato, who won for the first time on the LPGA Tour at last week’s Evian Masters in France.
Ochoa and Miyazato have been drawn together for the first two rounds at Lytham in the company of 2004 champion Karen Stupples and the Mexican admitted she was overwhelmed watching the Japanese golfer wrest the Evian title from Sweden’s Sophie Gustafson to record her first victory since joining the LPGA Tour back in 2006.
“I was super happy,” admitted Ochoa. “I almost cried watching her on TV on Sunday afternoon and I got very emotional. She’s been a good friend and I know how hard she works and how much pressure she has from the media back in her country.”
Many of the Japanese golf press were present when Miyazako did her own interview after the pro-am and she was clearly still on a high after a victory which has reverberated around her homeland and made her feel as if she belongs alongside all the other top international players on the LPGA circuit.
Miyazako admitted it took her a while to acclimatise to the western lifestyle and to the inevitable language barrier she faced but believes the victory in France made all her discomfort worthwhile.
“When I won in Japan (prior to 2006) I was basically not scared of anything. But I went through a lot coming to the States so the win is very valuable to me. “It means a lot,” she added. “There are a lot of good, young Japanese players and by winning I think I have shown them that they can all do it. I think the level of golf in Japan will increase as a lot.”
This year’s Ricoh Women’s British Open has attracted a strong international field that includes 29 out of the top 30 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking. It is indicative of the changing face of women’s professional golf that the field includes nine Japanese and 29 golfers from Korea.
The defending champion is Korea’s Jiyai (pronounced G A) Shin who won last year’s Championship at Sunningdale and has since gone on record a further four LPGA Tour titles and jump up to No. 4 on the World Ranking. She has also recorded a pop song in her native Korea and so could provide an entertaining victor’s address if she was to duplicate her victory at Sunningdale this year.
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